Tweet
LOUISIANA: ARMENIAN PRODUCE GROWERS VISIT LSU AGCENTER
US Official News
April 2, 2015 Thursday
Baton Rouge
LSU AgCenter, The state of Louisiana has issued the following news
release:
Five Armenian farmers and food processors are visiting Louisiana this
week (March 30-April 4) as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Cochran Fellowship Program, which provides short-term training to
agriculture professionals from middle-income countries.
The visitors have been touring Louisiana fruit and vegetable farms and
attending workshops taught by LSU AgCenter faculty members on topics
including pruning techniques, drip irrigation and cold-storage systems.
"The whole purpose is to expose the Armenian growers to applicable
technologies that we use here for small family farms in Louisiana
for the betterment of their livelihoods in rural Armenia," said David
Picha, director of AgCenter International Programs. "There are a lot
of appropriate applicable technologies that made our small farmers
strong that we would like to share with the growers to uplift their
rural sector."
The visiting Cochran fellows grow and process crops such as figs,
persimmons and pomegranates. In Louisiana, they've seen strawberry
farms - which are in full swing now - and are interested in starting
berry production in Armenia, Picha said. That could help them diversify
their income and make use of land they don't currently use.
"Most of their income is received in two or three months, and they
must do their planning in the first three months for the whole year,"
said Smbat Grigoryan, the group's translator. "Berry production can
get them income in other months."
Picha said shifting from low-value grain crops to specialty crops
like berries could boost the Armenian economy.
"We're focusing on high-value horticulture crops, which are more
applicable to small-scale family farms," Picha said. "You can
make a lot of money on fruit and vegetable production and their
value-added products - dried fruits, juices, jams - for local and
regional markets."
The Armenians said they plan to share the information they're learning
in the U.S. when they return home, where agriculture is very different,
and farms are much smaller. They visited a several-hundred-acre farm
in Louisiana, but the largest farm in their region of Armenia is
about 25 acres, Grigoryan said. And many growers still use Soviet-era
techniques and technologies.
"There are three stages of agriculture: agriculture, effective
agriculture and high-value agriculture," Grigoryan said. "We are
still in stage one."
Yields of Armenian crops could stand improvement, he said, and
the group hopes what they're learning about varieties, pruning and
irrigation will help.
The Armenians will travel next to California to meet with farmers
and tour their operations.
From: A. Papazian
US Official News
April 2, 2015 Thursday
Baton Rouge
LSU AgCenter, The state of Louisiana has issued the following news
release:
Five Armenian farmers and food processors are visiting Louisiana this
week (March 30-April 4) as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Cochran Fellowship Program, which provides short-term training to
agriculture professionals from middle-income countries.
The visitors have been touring Louisiana fruit and vegetable farms and
attending workshops taught by LSU AgCenter faculty members on topics
including pruning techniques, drip irrigation and cold-storage systems.
"The whole purpose is to expose the Armenian growers to applicable
technologies that we use here for small family farms in Louisiana
for the betterment of their livelihoods in rural Armenia," said David
Picha, director of AgCenter International Programs. "There are a lot
of appropriate applicable technologies that made our small farmers
strong that we would like to share with the growers to uplift their
rural sector."
The visiting Cochran fellows grow and process crops such as figs,
persimmons and pomegranates. In Louisiana, they've seen strawberry
farms - which are in full swing now - and are interested in starting
berry production in Armenia, Picha said. That could help them diversify
their income and make use of land they don't currently use.
"Most of their income is received in two or three months, and they
must do their planning in the first three months for the whole year,"
said Smbat Grigoryan, the group's translator. "Berry production can
get them income in other months."
Picha said shifting from low-value grain crops to specialty crops
like berries could boost the Armenian economy.
"We're focusing on high-value horticulture crops, which are more
applicable to small-scale family farms," Picha said. "You can
make a lot of money on fruit and vegetable production and their
value-added products - dried fruits, juices, jams - for local and
regional markets."
The Armenians said they plan to share the information they're learning
in the U.S. when they return home, where agriculture is very different,
and farms are much smaller. They visited a several-hundred-acre farm
in Louisiana, but the largest farm in their region of Armenia is
about 25 acres, Grigoryan said. And many growers still use Soviet-era
techniques and technologies.
"There are three stages of agriculture: agriculture, effective
agriculture and high-value agriculture," Grigoryan said. "We are
still in stage one."
Yields of Armenian crops could stand improvement, he said, and
the group hopes what they're learning about varieties, pruning and
irrigation will help.
The Armenians will travel next to California to meet with farmers
and tour their operations.
From: A. Papazian